New York/Nairobi, 12 May 2026 – The United Nations is expanding its headquarters in Africa, located at Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, whose presence has become more significant as the world organization is reforming to make its work and programs more effective in the face of funding shortage and personnel layoffs.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Kenyan President William Ruto and officials from the country as well as the UN itself held a groundbreaking ceremony on May 11 to expand the UN Office at Nairobi (UNON) with a new assembly hall and office buildings before several UN agencies will move there from New York.
Guterres said the ceremony was a “reaffirmation of the central role that Africa – and Kenya – play in the life and future of the United Nations. Nairobi is neither a satellite nor an outpost. It is a pillar – the only United Nations headquarters in Africa – and in the Global South.”
He praised Africa as “a driver of solutions, a source of innovation, and a voice of moral clarity in our shared pursuit of peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights.”
He praised the Kenyan government for generously donating the 140 acres of land that houses UNON, which he said has grown into “a dynamic hub of multilateral action. Nairobi is a place where global challenges meet regional solutions. Where innovation is born. And where the future of multilateralism is being shaped – every day. This is a powerful demonstration of what the United Nations can achieve when we are focused, efficient, and united in purpose.”
UNON comprises the UN Environment Program and UN Habitat and will soon welcome other UN agencies: UN Women, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the UN Population Agency and UN Funds for Children.
The UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York has approved a fund of US$340 million to expand the office in Nairobi, which UN News reported that it is the largest investment undertaken by the UN Secretariat in Africa in its 80-year history, strengthening Nairobi’s role as a global center for diplomacy and multilateral cooperation.
UN News said the construction of new buildings will increase conference capacity at UNON from 2,000 to 9,000 participants, including through the construction of a new assembly hall and expanded meeting facilities. Currently UNON has more than 70 offices used by thousands of staff.
The UN Chief said African countries have been making advances in technologies and the economy but they have been restrained by “global obstacles that Africa did not create – from unjust borrowing costs and crushing debt burdens to a deeply unequal international system that reflects last century’s power relations.”
“True solidarity with Africa means helping remove those obstacles,” he said. “That is also why the expansion of UNON – and the growing presence of UN entities here in Nairobi – matters so much.”
At the opening on May 12 of the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi co-hosted by the Kenyan president and France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Guterres credited Africa for leading the global debate about reforming global financial institutions that were “designed in 1945 for a world that no longer exists.”
He also credited the continent’s leading role in other areas, including getting the Pact for the Future approved, building new tools for debt negotiations, and challenging credit ratings systems, UN News reported.
“This is not a continent waiting for solutions. This is a continent producing them,” he said. “But let us be honest about what stands in Africa’s way.”
The UN Chief pointed out an injustice against Africa: the continent is home to more than 1.5 billion people but it has no permanent seats on the 15-nation UN Security Council since the UN was established in 1945. The council has five permanent members: the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China. (By J. Tuyet Nguyen)
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